Increased Expression of Thymosin β4 Is Independently Correlated with Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α (HIF-1α) and Worse Clinical Outcome in Human Colorectal Cancer

Lee SY, Park MJ, Lee HK, Son HJ, Kim CN, Kim JH, Kang DW · Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine

High tumour Tβ4 correlated with lymphovascular invasion, invasion depth, nodal and distant metastasis and TNM stage, and independently predicted worse recurrence-free (p=0.001) and overall survival (p=0.005) on multivariate analysis — relative risk 2.54 (95% CI 1.48 to 4.36) for recurrence and 2.46 (1.32 to 4.59) for death over a mean 53 months of follow-up.

Population

143 patients with colorectal cancer, tumour immunohistochemistry

Intervention

None — observational

Comparator

Low versus high tumour Tβ4 expression

Limitations

Prognostic association in existing tumours; says nothing about whether Tβ4 exposure initiates cancer, and expression inside a tumour is not the same variable as an injected dose. Expression scored by two pathologists blinded to outcome and cut at the series median; no conflict reported and no funding statement.